Post you book reviews here. Fiction or non but motorcycle related
I'll start this off with Proficient Motorcycling by David L. Hough He is a yank but has plenty of good riding tips to pass on. The book is 250 pages with heaps of good pictures. This is a road rider's book, no Keith Code stuff here, but plenty of good advice from riding in snow, pillion riding and traffic survival to some pretty decent statistics about how accidents happen and where your likely to get hurt. Because he is a yank you will have to change the text around a bit to right hand drive- other than that wee niggle it is well worth a read. It comes with a CD but I have yet to look at that because 250 pages is a lot of info to digest. It is so comprehensive there is even tips on animal behaviour- as in- which way will the f*cker run or will it just sit there. No mention of pulling a plug lead off the Ambo so it sounds like a Honda quad for rounding up stray cattle on the highway but you can't have it all eh?
I will have to look out for that. Stuff on real world conditions is rarer than the stuff on how to extract the last 5% on a track. My tip here is - never attempt to read 'Zen and the Art of Total Bollocks'.
Oh here's another one, and we want the crappers as well as the gems. How to Build a Pro Streetbike by Mike Seate Not into slammed high performance modern bikes but think you could learn a thing or two for your BFTP project? Well that would be true if this book was worth the poor trees that were murdered to print it. All I need to do is give this quote straight from the book; "Advanced skills like welding can often be farmed out during a more complex streetfighter project" WTF?? Plenty of lovely pictures of 'Busa after 'Busa with custom paint, no suspension travel and swingarms longer than a hillclimber but no flippin' substance How to prepare a stunt bike- go buy this kit and bolt it on but you may need to get it fitted by a professional custom shop Yeah, nice. So it is aimed at someone who holds a screwdriver like it is an alien artifact from a crash site in the Nevada dessert. I did not buy the book, but just the effort of bringing it home from the library was enough to piss me off for what use it is. Here's another gem; "A small amount of travel is left in the rear shock for cornering"
Are you tempted to take the Ambo to the US and show those prats the way around corners. It would make a nice video. "Ancient Relic (and bike) Give 'Busa The Learn"
Yes Keith, only problem is the left hand drive. Every time I went into a roundabout on the bike I nearly came out on the wrong side of the road and when I sold the bike and bought a car it was easier because everything in the car was for left hand drive, the only problem I had was stopping for gas then getting in the passenger side, where I pretended to look at a map in the glove box to hide my booboo before getting out and going to the driver's door
hide my booboo .......you old hippie you...smarter than the average bear.
It's a Guzzi for Gods sake. You can use any side of the road you want. I know what you mean about opening the passenger door though.
I should review the Edward Turner biography I read a few weeks ago.It's good if you want to know all the details of ET's life.But it's an official biography,so no dirt dragged out to sift through....you have to read between the lines for the ET tantrums.Like he fired his chauffeur several times,and said chauffeur resigned just as many times too - they must have had some dingdong battles that ET would just pretend never happened. I was hoping to read a bit more about the how and why of his designs,because they were all very personal and original,he was very much for simplicity,and his styling was just artistry to metal.We find one of Edward's sisters was a very good artist...so the melding of a blacksmith father and artist may be the result. He was managing director of Triumph,BSA and Aerial,and found it surprising that he had no hand in BSA designs,he had nothing to do with the A65,and hardly ever set foot in BSA's door.Having had both Triumph's and BSA's,maybe the commonality of parts was going out the back door of Triumph and into BSA rather than any sharing.We know he designed two Daimler V8's...but how,why? It appears he had an interest in American V8's,maybe because of the simplicity of design....and the Daimler V8 are very close to the Chrysler hemi engines. Anyway,it's a very good read to find out the personal life of maybe the most influential man in motorcycle history.
It was an 850 Mk3 Commando actually, and my rose tinted glasses tell me I could do with another one at some stage because I had to sell it and buy a station wagon when winter kicked in. Since then I've grown a mustache and HTFU but alas, too late... Cheers for the review Motu, I will see if the library has a copy. Who cares about any dirt on Turner, you gotta stop reading the Womans Day and New Idea mate And for Aucklanders, if you did not know- as part of the superduper city crap all the librarys are combined and you can internet search a book from all librarys in the greater Auclkand district (West Ak, Nth Shore, central, Chowick, Frankland etc), book the book and have it sent to a library of your choice for collection and return it at any library you want. This opens up a friggin' plethora of cool m/c books to peruse
Just finished Stealing Speed - the biggest spy scandal in motorsport history. Author is Matt Oxley and the story follows Walter Kaaden's theories of two stroke power from his days as a designer at Hitler's rocket range in Peenemunde (the tailplanes for the V1 "buzzbomb" rocket) to his installation in the new East Germany's former DKW factory (renamed IFA and what we now know as MZ.) Unfortunately the Russians had stripped the factory, taking even the windows. It was Kaaden's job to get it up and running again, however he could. He turned to racing as a way of promoting the machines. Kaaden's work during WW2 on the V1 and its pulse jet had led him to believe that the two-stroke engine was a harmonic engine, whereas the four stroke was a pump. The two stroke engine's performance could be enhanced by harnessing harmonic pulses. Gentlemen, we have the expansion chamber. He employed a young man callled Ernst Degner, who worked closely alongside Kaaden, learned all his secrets. Their underfunded two strokes confounded the racing world, proving powerful at a time when two strokes were all but written off from racing. Just when Degner looked like winning his first world championship, he defected and sold the technology to Suzuki, taking that Japanese to the head of the development race and to their first world championships. Not long after, Yamaha two strokes achieved similar success and on reviewing these engines, they were found to be almost identical to the Suzukis. The book makes a strong claim that the mighty Suzuki RG500 was no less than four of Kaaden's 125s put together. Bloody interesting story, if a tad long-winded in places. The book reminds me of one of Tim Hanna's thoroughly researched pieces, but without Hanna's flair for words. Have this weekend swooped on a copy of "Croz, Larrikin Biker" personally autographed with a thumb dipped in red wine. Will report back....
Just finished Stealing Speed I have seen thet on Amazon and have just about bought it a few times................with the deal for what ever else they have that looks cool as well................. Trying to stay away from Amazon
I love all the stories about Walter Kaaden One version is that the disc valve was his baby and went to Japan with Denger. Pity Yamaha were using them before the defection, but never let fact ruin a good story. As far as the RG500 goes, I guess all engines are minor variations on a basic theme.
Another book due out soon is by Tim Hanna about Kim Newcombe, which should be a ripper. I've thoroughly enjoyed Tim's books about Burt Munro and John Britten. The latter is a tour de force. Dodgy - being able to source books from all Auckland's libraries is awesome. The Stealing Speed book was my first use of this new service. I've used our local Browns Bay library extensively over the years (we read our sons every book in the kids' section - that took some doing) and it's an excellent service. Dadpole - the book touches on Kaaden's use of the rotary valve but certainly credits him with the invention and development of the expansion chamber. His second big discovery was in search of more reliability for two strokes, because despite managing to extract more power from the engines he had not cured their dangerous and even fatal tendency to seize without warning (normally after an extended period at full throttle of course, like full noise three-quarters of the way down a long straight.) He added an extra transfer port in an attempt to get more cooling charge and lubrication to the cylinder, suddenly finding he also had significantly more power. The expansion chamber was an obvious development but the transfer port was a hidden secret. It didn't entirely cure the problem - they also added a manual kill button so that during gear changes there would be an unburnt charge in the cylinder that cooled and lubricated the upper cylinder. Remembering a story by Barry Sheene about seizing his RG500 GP bike - he asked the Japanese technician to strip the bike and replace the crank bearings because Sheene felt one was on the way out. When he got to the track the next morning he asked the techo to show him the bearings and was told they had not been replaced. The bike seized at high speed - Sheene survived but headed for the pits with a smack in the head for a certain techo on his mind. The techo had disappeared and was in hiding. So they never got the issue of sudden seizure solved....
Sitting on my desk is "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" by Robert M Pirsig. Should I read it for a 4th time??? More philosophy than motorcycle maintenance but still takes you on a thought provoking trip!!
